My name is Eleni Gkika, originally from Greece, and I am studying the Global MBA at Bayes Business School School.

My cohort recently completed the third integration week of our programme. This week was very special, compared to the previous two, for the following reasons:

• We had to complete the task in person rather than online.
• Each group was acting as a consultant to a start-up business which was given to us by the faculty – an excellent opportunity to apply the theories and frameworks to a real-world problem.
• We experienced what business/management consultants do in their role by engaging with a client and their problem and within a week delivered a solution.

Focusing on my group, we were assigned as consultants to a programmatic advertising start-up company in the healthcare industry. The project goal was advising our client on international market growth beyond their existing markets of India, USA and the UK into France and Germany.  It was a very interesting project and a completely new industry for us all since none of the group members had work experience or knowledge in health-care industry or online advertising.

Our group consisted of five multitalented men and one woman (myself) who was appointed to the role of project manager / team leader. The challenges we successfully dealt with were tight deadlines, a new industry, fundamental differences amongst group members (e.g. culture, working patterns, skills).

Being the team leader for this project, was a challenging but enjoyable role. Using my emotional intelligence along with my dynamic character (e.g. results driven individual), helped me to lead the team to success and complete tasks on time. The client was impressed with our presentation, and they highlighted the extra useful information they obtained through our thorough research.

Overall, integration weeks are one of the highlights during our online Global MBA journey for the following reasons:

• You can meet in person with your classmates who are scattered around the globe.
• They are great networking opportunities with people from other cohorts and university staff (professors, administration, tutors) during the social dinner.
• It is an awesome opportunity to work with different classmates from your cohort whilst you learn new things and you develop your skills through real life projects. Working with your cohort provides a unique opportunity to observe and learn from various perspectives as the team is composed of experts of various fields (e.g. oil and gas, finance, hospitality, law, health care, public sector).

My advice to you all: enjoy every moment of your integration weeks and try to take as much learning out of them as possible!